Neo-Conservatism and Corruption at Adelphi University, 1985-1997
The Twilight of Reason: Neo-Conservatism and Corruption at Adelphi University, 1985-1997 Daniel Rosenberg' During the administration of President Peter Diamandopoulos (1985- 1997), Adelphi University elicited considerable national attention. When faculty opposition to Diamandopoulos prompted the New York State Board of Regents to investigate reports of trustee and presidential malfeasance, the peculiar cir- cumstances at the Long Island institution became unprecedented matters of public scrutiny, drawing reporters from national, as well as local, media, and from publications dealing with higher education. Evidence before the Regents indicated exorbitant self-aggrandizement, extensive violations of non-profit and board procedures, and of ethical norms in education, leading the state body to remove the trustees in early 1997.* While the Regents' hearings and concurrent reporting publicly revealed the mercurial personality of Diamandopoulos, the coverage tended to obscure political factors, which facilitated and rationalized the operations of the presi- dent and his associates among the trustees. The following article will present an analysis of these dimensions in particular, giving relevant attention to, while leaving aside a fuller exposition of, the removal process. The president was a political animal, and not only in the customary sense of campus maneuvering, but one with clearly right-wing proclivities, notwith- standing his stated pursuit of an expansive "liberal learning." Despite the evi- dence of malfeasance, he attracted support from important organizations, national leaders, editorial boards, and foundations opposed to multiculturalism, campus unions, and the values of the 1960s perceived to be embodied within. However possessed (as the Regents hearings showed) of an overripe self- esteem, he was never abstractly opportunistic, but steered consistently right- ward.
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